‘Perhaps the main reason for Teen Vogue’s success is Elaine Welteroth, who became editor-in-chief in May.’
Photograph: Lewis/Starpix/Rex/Shutterstock

Over the weekend, Anna Wintour, the formidable editor-in-chief of US Vogue, was compelled to issue an apology after being overheard on a train panning Donald Trump, saying his foundation had achieved nothing, and that he would use his presidency to further his personal brand. “I immediately regretted my comments,” she told the Sunday Mirror, “and I apologise. I hope he’ll be a successful president for us all.”

This apology came on the same day Vogue’s younger, savvier sister, Teen Vogue, published an excoriating op-ed on Trump, which quickly went viral. Headlined “Donald Trump is gaslighting America” the piece by Lauren Duca explained the president-elect’s strategy of lying so frequently and egregiously that the public are left not knowing what is true or false (a manipulative technique known as “gaslighting” after the 1938 play Gas Light). Trump’s “rise to power,” writes Duca, “has awakened a force of bigotry by condoning and encouraging hatred, but also by normalising deception.”

It’s not quite the mad-about-the-boy talk one might think of when it comes to teen magazines and, by extension, their readers. But Duca’s piece isn’t a blip for Teen Vogue. While other magazines are publishing ethically dubious trend pieces on the “fashy” haircuts of white nationalist Richard Spencer and his peers, Teen Vogue has been ensuring its readers know that Vice-President-elect Mike Pence voted against the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and once said, referring to abortion law, that he “longed for the day that Roe v Wade is sent to the ash heap of history”.

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There are a few reasons the magazine, which is printed quarterly but has a wide web and social media presence, has come out fighting. First, it doesn’t have to toe the same line many publishers do, terrified of losing access to Trump. Teen Vogue probably does not have access to Trump. When the tiny-fisted tantrum of a man rips press credentials from outlets such as the Washington Post for daring to ask questions, the danger is that the press will be cowed into taking an artificially softer line. Teen Vogue isn’t caught up in that game.

Second, teen mags and kids’ books and TV shows have always been more renegade than adults give them credit for: think JK Rowling smuggling political lessons for muggles into her books, or the pro-immigration story of Paddington Bear. It used to be that adults didn’t notice this subterfuge because they weren’t paying attention; now the misapprehension comes more from the pronounced tendency to dismiss the thoughts and culture of Generation Y and all who come afterwards.

But perhaps the main reason for Teen Vogue’s success is the tag team of Phil Picardi, digital editorial director, and Elaine Welteroth, editor. Welteroth is a rare editor of colour in a glossy magazine industry weighed down as much by whiteness as by insert advertising. At 29, she became the youngest editor-in-chief in Condé Nast history.

Since Picardi and Welteroth took the helm, Teen Vogue’s journalism has included a video report from the Standing Rock protest, a piece about recreational drugs being used to treat depression, and the exposure of homophobic tweets of Republican politicians. Duca’s op-ed might have gone viral, partly due to an element of surprise – Teen Vogue published this! – but it isn’t surprising to those of us who have been reading the magazine.

The title hasn’t been stripped of lighter, fashion content because – shocking as this is – young women can be interested in both. Perhaps it isn’t surprising that outlets with younger staff and readers (see also: US Cosmopolitan) are taking a more progressive editorial line, given that the demographic is more diverse in race and sexuality, so has more invested in that worldview. There’s been a lot of hand-wringing about who is or isn’t responsible for Trump, and what to do about him, but Teen Vogue proves that, as with mislaid keys and where you had them last, perhaps the answers aren’t always quite where you looked before.

•This article has been amended to include reference to Phil Picardi and his role at TeenVogue.com